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NATIONAL FLIGHT ACADEMY The Naval Aviation Museum Foundation recently announced a $1.7 million grant from the Emil Buehler Perpetual Trust to support design, development and installation of flight simulators as the pinnacle experience for National Flight Academy participants. The National Flight Academy is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2012.
STACEY KOSTEVICKI Gulf Coast Kid’s House, Inc. has named Kostevicki its new executive director. She previously worked at Studer Group and with several not-for-profit agencies in roles including Interim Executive Director, Development Coordinator and Public Outreach Coordinator. She is also a 2010 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient. Gulf Coast Kid’s House is the only child advocacy center serving Escambia County.

AVALEX TECHNOLOGIES The leading supplier of displays, digital mapping systems and digital video recorders used for airborne surveillance has been recognized as a recipient of the 2011 “Florida Companies to Watch” award, an honor presented by GrowFL, the Florida Economic Gardening Institute at the University of Central Florida and ACG Florida, in association with the Edward Lowe Foundation.

Losers

POLITICAL DISCOURSE In politics, statesmen realize that different sides can agree to disagree without name calling or slam pieces. Unfortunately, we have few statesmen, and political discourse has been reduced to personal attacks. Sarah Palin, the frontrunner of the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, used on her Facebook page the crosshairs of a gun scope to mark the Democratic Congressmen she wanted to target for defeat. One of her “targets” was Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was gunned down on Jan. 8. What seemed like a cute political gimmick at the time isn’t so funny now. Palin has removed the image from her site.

LOIS BENSON The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority board member doesn’t lose many political battles, but the end run to get her daughter, Megan Benson Pratt, elected the first Pensacola City Council president fell short by one vote. It was a brilliant strategy. Everyone was focused on Sam Hall and John Jerralds as the ones competing against Maren DeWeese. Pratt was definitely less controversial, but she has never been seen as part of the change movement in Pensacola. Hall, Jerralds and Townsend were the only votes she could garner. Brian Spencer, Sherri Myers, Larry Johnson and surprisingly, PC Wu, went with DeWeese.